The present invention relates to a thin layered magnetic head, particularly for use in digital sound-, video-, and data-recording on magnetic tapes. The head is of the type which includes a substrate provided on its top with a polished area facing a magnetic tape and including an arcuate contact zone extending in feeding direction of the tape to contact the latter, and a set of thin layered magnetic transducers arranged in the substrate and opening into the contact zone.
In a prior art magnetic head of this type the polished area has a uniform arcuate contour which extend in the feeding direction of the tape through the contact zone of the letter and depending on the construction type of the head, has a constant radius between 2 to 6 mm.
Since magnetic heads are subject to wear, the contact zone contacting the magnetic tape increases disproportionally to the abrasion to occupy progressively larger portion of the polished area. Consequently, after prolongated operational periods the contact surface between the head and the tape grows larger and specific contact pressure of the tape against the contact zone diminishes. This reduction of the specific contact pressure together with contamination deposits and built-up residuals as well as due to the lift of the tape caused by an air wedge, leads to stronger distance damping. This increased damping especially at very high recording densities with magnetization wavelengths between 1 to 2 microns impairs the transmission quality of the head beyond repair.